A number of problems exist with regard to serving soup in its many forms and viscosities with a single serving unit. There is a considerable difference in the characteristics of soups, stews, chilis and the like and accordingly, it is most difficult to provide a universal dispensing device which will handle all these various types of liquid or semi-liquid foods with equal facility.
In order to dispense measured quantites, it has been relatively standard in the prior art devices to provide a single trap chamber or the like for measuring a predetermined single quantity into a container. However, such an approach results in an undue amount of garnish or soup solids in the first bowls out of a pot and a reduced quantity of such solids and hence, an inferior grade of soup in successively dispensed quantities. Once permitted to settle, the soup solids cause the problem to repeat itself.
It is to this problem that the present invention is directed, namely, the provision of dispensing equipment which is equally adapted to highly liquid, semi-liquid, chunky, or viscous soups, stews, and the like and which will deliver predetermined quantities of relatively standard quality either in rapid succession or at relatively random frequencies.
Various conditions of the dispensing apparatus of the present invention should be monitored and visually annunciated when critical parameters exist. For example, the ON condition of each of two heaters, the ON condition of main power, the ON condition of a dispensing cycle, the YES condition of a first number of servings dispensed and the YES condition of a second number of sevings dispensed. The second number of servings is selected as that amount of remaining food product to which new product can be added to refill the reservoir without down time for reheating the food product. This latter feature permits continuous serving of large volumes of customers with a single dispensing apparatus with no down time caused by refills.
Also, a control system is needed to preclude dispensing operations in the absence of a serving receptacle. Further, in the absence of the reservoir, no power should be permitted to flow to the heaters, drive motor, visual annunciation or other control circuit components of the dispensing apparatus.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and novel dispensing apparatus for serving measured quantities of hot soups, stews, and other liquid food products.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and novel soup and stew and liquid food dispensing apparatus which has self-contained agitating and heating means and a multiple cavity volumetric discharge plate which dispenses predetermined sequences of unit volumes from a reservoir to thereby discharge known measured quantities of the food product.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and novel soup and stew and liquid food product dispensing apparatus which has self-contained agitating and heating means and a multiple cavity volumetric discharge plate which dispenses predetermined sequences of unit volumes from a reservoir to thereby discharge known measured quantities of the food product; and which includes selectively insertable strainer assemblies removably mounted over each of the cavities in the said discharge plate.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a new and novel soup and stew and liquid food product dispensing apparatus which will not dispense in the absence of predetermined conditions and which will provide visual indication of various conditions of the apparatus.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a new and novel soup and stew and liquid food product dispensing apparatus having a reservoir and a monitoring means determining and visually indicating levels in said reservoir approximate and equal to a level at which food product may be added without interrupting food service because of food temperature variations.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new and novel serving apparatus for soups, stews, and liquid food products which is equally facile in its handling of highly-liquid, semi-liquid, chunky and/or viscous food products and which is readily disassembled for cleaning purposes after a given use cycle.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more fully apparent with reference to the following specification and drawings which relate to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.